Strange Traction Battery Behaviour

[capnbirdesye]

I suddenly noticed that that the bars on the traction Battery indicator are turning a lot more green than it normally does on our Gen2 for some strange reason, in fact some times it stays green for several miles with occasional runs on EV only or assisting the engine according to the terrain as per usual.

It's not worked like that in the 11 months we have owned it however,just occasionally getting a full green screen. When it drops to blue it doesn't seem to be very long before it's back to green again, full except for one bar.

I would have thought that my fuel consumption would have improved with longer runs of EV but it's about the same as usual altho I only started getting this happen from Yesterday to see for sure.

It's in for service in a couple of weeks so if it's still doing it I'll see what they say.

[ph47mf]

i dont see light green bars (fully charged) unless after a run on the motorway. my driving is 90% in city and i rarely see it. i dont know whether you or I have a problem with the Battery indicator.

[timberwolf]

Any Diagnostic Trouble Codes (DTC), any warning triangle messages on the MFD, any dash light triangle symbols with exclamation marks? If there are no warning indications then you don't have a problem.

There are many factors that influence the State of Charge in the HV Battery that it isn't worth worrying about - if you think about all the things that can affect it, you'll realise that you have changed something, maybe the climate control settings, or you've changed your route, or the way you drive, etc.

[Grumpy Cabbie]

A number of guesses;

1, You had a passenger in who was blocking the rear airvent.

2, You have a possible failing 12volt Battery - esp if headlights are on. Is your car a 2007/8? or with 60k+ miles?

3, Nothing is wrong and you just noticed something different.

[capnbirdesye]

A number of guesses;

1, You had a passenger in who was blocking the rear airvent.

2, You have a possible failing 12volt battery - esp if headlights are on. Is your car a 2007/8? or with 60k+ miles?

3, Nothing is wrong and you just noticed something different.

We did have a passenger in the rear nearside seat but already checked the vent was clear, car is 2007 with 36000 miles

Due for service shortly so if it's still doing it then I'll mention it then, was already thinking about the 12v so will get it checked.

Oddly enough we noticed the heating was not behaving properly, we usually have it set to 18c but to get heat we had to up it to 22c

[Grumpy Cabbie]

We did have a passenger in the rear nearside seat but already checked the vent was clear, car is 2007 with 36000 miles

Due for service shortly so if it's still doing it then I'll mention it then, was already thinking about the 12v so will get it checked.

Oddly enough we noticed the heating was not behaving properly, we usually have it set to 18c but to get heat we had to up it to 22c

They always move when you ask them if they're blocking the vent! Get it all the time in mine. Being a gen3 its slightly different but when the vent gets blocked the HV indicator sticks at 7 out of 8 bars and the car will do odd things. It's almost like the HV Battery is warmer than it wants to be and will go into a safe® mode. I've had it switch off altogether with just the engine revving at about 2000 rpm on a hot day with lots of braking and accelerating with the a/c on full.

Prudent to get the 12v checked when getting it serviced.

Your heat is low? I'd check the coolant level - like NOW. Alternatively if you had a full car the heat from all those bodies might have fooled the a/c into thinking it was warm enough?

[capnbirdesye]

More odd behaviour

I notice is that when accelerating sometimes the arrow points to the Battery instead of the electric motor even if it's full blue or green, in other words it's not assisting the engine, also getting momentary black arrow between Battery & Elec motor whilst the arrow from Elec motor to engine is lit

Called in at the Toyota dealers as we were in the area, they tested the 12v Battery & it shows o.k. but have not discounted it altogether as it might lose charge when left standing.They also did a test printout of the traction battery which shows o.k.

I arrived at the dealers which is up a hill (Toyota Bromsgrove) & the energy meter still remained green. The foreman took it for a run but didn't get another green battery display but did notice the arrow flickering on & off.

They are going to give it more testing when it goes in for service shortly.

Another thing I noticed is that the engine fires up within seconds of pushing the start button whereas normally it starts after I have reversed out of the drive.

[timberwolf]

More odd behaviour

I notice is that when accelerating sometimes the arrow points to the battery instead of the electric motor even if it's full blue or green, in other words it's not assisting the engine, also getting momentary black arrow between battery & Elec motor whilst the arrow from Elec motor to engine is lit

Called in at the Toyota dealers as we were in the area, they tested the 12v battery & it shows o.k. but have not discounted it altogether as it might lose charge when left standing.They also did a test printout of the traction battery which shows o.k.

I arrived at the dealers which is up a hill (Toyota Bromsgrove) & the energy meter still remained green. The foreman took it for a run but didn't get another green battery display but did notice the arrow flickering on & off.

They are going to give it more testing when it goes in for service shortly.

Another thing I noticed is that the engine fires up within seconds of pushing the start button whereas normally it starts after I have reversed out of the drive.

Reversing is always with the electric motor/generator (MG2). If the engine is firing up before the 10 seconds that may suggest that one of the ECUs thinks that the HV Battery has a low SOC, so it is running the petrol engine to generate the electricity with MG1 which it thinks it needs to power MG2 rather than use the HV Battery.

[capnbirdesye]

I just tried the 12v test using the MF display, it showed exactly 12v, then followed the instruction to press the power button again & it dropped to 11.6

I had been out 2 hours ago so going to try after it's stood all night. Most vehicle 12v batteries are supposed to show around 13v to be in good order, don't know if that applies to the Prius one.

[timberwolf]

Mine used to show 12.8v.

[kithmo]

More odd behaviour

I notice is that when accelerating sometimes the arrow points to the battery instead of the electric motor even if it's full blue or green, in other words it's not assisting the engine, also getting momentary black arrow between battery & Elec motor whilst the arrow from Elec motor to engine is lit

Called in at the Toyota dealers as we were in the area, they tested the 12v battery & it shows o.k. but have not discounted it altogether as it might lose charge when left standing.They also did a test printout of the traction battery which shows o.k.

I arrived at the dealers which is up a hill (Toyota Bromsgrove) & the energy meter still remained green. The foreman took it for a run but didn't get another green battery display but did notice the arrow flickering on & off.

They are going to give it more testing when it goes in for service shortly.

Another thing I noticed is that the engine fires up within seconds of pushing the start button whereas normally it starts after I have reversed out of the drive.

Reversing is always with the electric motor/generator (MG2). If the engine is firing up before the 10 seconds that may suggest that one of the ECUs thinks that the HV Battery has a low SOC, so it is running the petrol engine to generate the electricity with MG1 which it thinks it needs to power MG2 rather than use the HV Battery.

Or it could be that one, or all of, the heater, the AC, the front or rear screen demisters are on, this will fire up the engine within seconds.

To prevent this, switch EV on as soon as "READY" lights up.